


The Entropy Of What Once Was Strong

by yaodai



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fish out of Water, Language Barrier, M/M, Multi, Nonbinary Orochimaru, Orochimaru meets nice people while kidnapped, Polyamory, awkward friendships, baby aliens are not there for your moral support oro, escape plan gone wrong, many characters with depression, orochimaru should not be allowed to name people, right after the Galactic Empire is created, shinobi very lost in space, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 01:25:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18885304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaodai/pseuds/yaodai
Summary: The shinobi lost the battle for their world and escape far, far away unaware that are stumbling right into another fight.Orochimaru, of course, gets himself kidnapped and very, very lost.





	1. Chapter 1

Entropy Of What Once Was Strong

 

Part One: Lost

 

Chapter 1

  
  


The tiles on the wall were covered in childish doodles and Yamato couldn't help it but stop dead and stare at the wobbly patterns, wondering how things ended up this way.  
Just two decades ago, this place was something that kept him up at night, a nightmarish laboratory well hidden from the world, where terrible experiments took place.

It wasn't the only one; it was actually horrible to learn how many places like this existed, hidden through the entire Elemental Nations. They knew about maybe half of them.

True, most of them were abandoned years ago, but still. Their very existence was horrific.  
Their very existence was also the only thing that kept what was left of the people alive. 

Yamato had spend literal years observing this place from afar.  He entered in on rare occasions, to creep through the wide, sterile-clean corridors filled with sharp, artificial light.  
Back then, he was looking for traces of evil.

For people who were not supposed to be here, for the wrong sort of equipment being on, for any source of activity that wasn't being sanctioned by Konoha or the Rice Daimyo, hoped that there would be something, that Orochimaru would trip at some point and that would be the end of it, but the moment never came. 

What came were other people, looking for a shelter when the world turned into a death trap and Orochimaru simply stepped aside, letting them in.  
And then he made a step of his own and handed over the access to every other of his hideouts.

Yamato suspected it was more spite than something that came from the goodness of Orochimaru's heart but at this point, it really didn't matter. 

So, there were traces of crayons covering the walls and the floor and the once  suspiciously empty rooms were now filled with sleeping bags and blankets, the labs were transformed into kitchens, medbays and workshops.

Orochimaru himself was sitting on the table in what now was a storage room, legs crossed, ridiculously rich, pearl white hanfu spread on the wooden surface around him, shining with golden and pale pink pattern of flowers and rice sheaf's.   
He was engrossed in a thick pile of papers; from where Yamato was standing it was mostly numbers and sets of few signs every line.

"Can you grow mushrooms with Mokuton?" 

The sudden question didn't surprise him too much - Orochimaru started using him as a soundboard long before things went horribly wrong and it was awfully convenient for both of them. 

It allowed Yamato to know exactly what was happening and to see it happening along with having an opportunity to ask as many question as he needed to understand what Orochimaru was up to.  
Or to stop him before he got into anything that could end up troublesome for Konoha.

"Mokuton grows plants. Mushrooms are not plants, so no, I can't."

"Ah, a shame," Orochimaru pouted at the papers in his hands.

"What do you even need mushrooms for?"

"They're a fast source of proteins," Orochimaru said and handed him over the pile of papers. "See here, were taking in another group in today..."

"We have rations for months," Yamato pointed out. 

"And then what?" Orochimaru quirked an eyebrow. "I don't want to touch any of the military rations, they have the longest shelf life and don't need a freezer."

"So, your solution is growing your own protein powder."

"I have a stupid amount of gelatin left over from when I was creating the mold-resistant rice for the daimyo," Orochimaru continued. 

"What, no desserts during the tea time?" Yamato chuckled. 

Tea time was probably the best idea Orochimaru had in his entire life - it gave a bunch of scared, sad people something to look forward to each day.  
Just a cup of weak tea, a plate of sweetened gelatinous goop and the shinobi were spared from restraining overwhelmed civilians.

"Have you seen how much of it is still left?" 

"Alright, worst case scenario we'll end up surviving on yello," Yamato put the documents on the table. "How long it's going to take anyway?"

"Sasuke found a place that should work," Orochimaru replied. "So I assume a scouting party is going to move out in the next few days. Most of the things are sealed and boxed just in case..."

"You're saying it's still weeks away?" Yamato guessed.

Orochimaru nodded and shifted, so he could see both Yamato and the documents.

"We have enough food for about a month, if we exclude the military rations and other thing with long shelf life I want to save for later,” He continued, fingers running over the paper surface, pointing at the numbers. “If Karin or Yamanaka return early with the Suna and Iwa groups it's going to be much less."

"I think we can stretch it a bit further."

"We are not cutting ration sizes,"Orochimaru cut him out. "The morale is already hanging on a treat."

"I'm sure people are going to understand."

Orochimaru rolled his eyes.

"Which one of us put together a hidden village again?" he asked. "What we have here is a group of strangers forced to live in each other pockets. You give them less food and they'll start fight each other over every scrap."

"You have a pretty low opinion on humans."

"It's called experience."

"Alright, alright!" Yamato raised his hands in defeat. "If we move the supplies from to the training room I can use the storages to grow some plants. Is watercress good enough?"

Orochimaru wrinkled his nose.

"It reeks."

"Now you're just ridiculous."

Orochimaru looked like he was ready to argue back, but he was cut off by a short alarm signal.

"Sounds like we have a visitor!" Orochimaru slid off the table. "That's... to early for either one of our groups."

Before the sentence was even finished he left the room, hurrying through the narrow corridors.

"I still can't believe you used seals to make a doorbell," Yamato shook his head, following the sannin close by.   
He wanted to know who found the hideout. Had a mission of one of their sensors gone wrong? It was hard to imagine anything else, since not many people knew where to even start looking for it. Unless they were told.

"I did it because I could, obviously."

Yamato rolled his eyes.

They've walked in on a chaotic mess of people screaming over each other, both children and adults, crowding the corridor near the entrance and not moving in any logical fashion.

Yamato looked around, trying to figure out which group was it, but no one looked familiar. No one, safe for-

"Morino?!"

He jumped forward, just in the right moment to break the man's fall and save him from face planting into the tiles.

Screaming around them intensified.

"How did you...?"

Yamato was sure Ibiki died months ago; the ANBU Headquarters were localized on top of the Hokage Mountain and the stone faces of the village leaders was the first thing the enemy decided to turn into rubble after showing up.  
There was literally nothing left of it in a matter of minutes and the morale of people felt apart just as easily.

"We've bumped into Yamanaka," Morino Ibiki sounded like he was coughing the words instead of speaking. His lips were parched and cracking, but he was real, gloriously and amazingly alive. "When we were scavenging in the ruins."

If not for the fact Yamato was holding the man, he wouldn’t be able to hear a word in the noise that surrounded them. 

Not that he would pay any attention to it anyway; Yamato was trained in lip reading and had a nosy habit of reading the hushed conversations happening on the opposite side of the room. Or further - for years he was observing Orochimaru without being allowed to make any sort of a contact and he needed to know what the man was doing somehow.

"She told you about this place," Yamato finished for him. "We though... I was sure you're dead."

"Surprise," Morino's scarred face twisted in a smile.

A pang of killing intent cut through the noise like a sharp blade.

"Enough of the screaming!" Orochimaru's voice filled the silence. "You all are going to follow me to he medical facilities and you are going to do so in orderly fashion!"

For one reason or another, it worked like a charm and the people - dirty, tired children and even more exhausted adults followed him like a bunch of ducklings.

"Huh," Morino raised his eyebrows.

"Come on, we're going too," Yamato maneuvered himself under his arm and pulled him up. "You sure look like you need some medical attention."

"Or else what, is Orochimaru going back to practice his crowd control skills on us?"

"Yep. That," Yamato nodded. "Come on, we'll get you all nice and patched before tea time."

"Tea time?"

"Long story."

It was a slow walk.  Morino was leaning onto him heavily, his strength exhausted by the last ditch of an attempt to find a shelter.

"I thought everyone was dead," he said. "But then I've literally dug that Cloud nin from under the rubble. And then there was the samurai woman and a bunch of kids, so I've started to hope. But damn, it sucked."

"I can see that," Yamato nodded. "At this point the only people that venture out of this place are sensors."

"So, we're just sitting ducks here?" Morino chuckled grimly.

"It's not that bad," he patted Morino on the shoulder and earned himself a painful groan.

When they finally entered the Medbay, the ragtag group of survivors were already well cared for by Sakura and two Suigetsu's, while Orochimaru swapped between barking orders and taking blood samples.

"...Since when this guy is a medic?" Morino asked, pointing at Suigetsu.

"Since I've spent fifteen years bored out of my mind, surrounded by mad scientists!" came the cheerful answer.

"Excuse you!"

"What?" Suigetsu shrugged. "I'm telling the truth, this bullshit goes in like osmosis. Ugh, see? Weird words again!"

Orochimaru rolled his eyes in an overly theatrical manner.

"Morino! It's really you!" Sakura walked so fast towards them it was almost a jog, eyes wide open in wonder. 

Her hands were already glowing green with healing chakra, moving up and down as she used a diagnostic jutsu.

“Captain, help me get him on the bed!” she ordered without making any sort of a pause. “You’re dehydrated and malnourished, but we can solve that one easily. Was there any medic in your group at any point? Because I really don’t like how that broken bone healed…”

Yamato slowly backed away, letting Sakura do whatever needed to be done.  
The place was already crowded without him and someone needed to visit the kitchen and tell the guys on the kitchen duty to prepare food for twenty more people.

 

xxx

 

"You have tea," Morino said, looking at the cup in his hand with disbelief. "You people really thought it was the thing to go and grab when it was time to run for your life?"

It was probably ages since the man had a chance to get any tea. Weeks, since the group had a warm meal, considering how people sobbed into their rice porridge. 

Morino was going to be stuck in bed for the next few days, so Yamato decided to deliver his meal personally, using the relative intimacy of the medbay to learn some more about how the man survived.  
He didn’t expect the first question coming from the man be about the tea.

Yamato kept his faces neutral, despite feeling guilt squeezing his stomach; they were living in here, comfortable and warm, with enough food for everyone and silly unnecessary goods like tea and desserts while other people - people he knew - barely survived, lacking everything.

"No one was going out just to scavenge some tea out of the ruins," Yamato rolled his eyes, deciding it was safer to concentrate on something silly. "The Rice Daimyo was... a bit peculiar when it came to gifts."

"So what, only the special few are getting it?" Morino suspiciously narrowed his eyes, probably ready to get up and hand over the cup to someone else.

"No, when I said peculiar I mean we probably have more tea in here than anything else," Yamato shook his head.

"So it's fancy tea for everyone?"

"I have no idea what sort of a tea is it. You want to know, you need to go and hunt down Orochimaru."

"Oh," Morino blinked. "So the gossip was right!"

"...why is this the thing that people care about?" 

"Do you know how many people made bets?"

Yamato groaned painfully, covering face with his hands. 

"Why would you even made bets about something like that?"

"For an ANBU, you were always such a good kid," Morino chuckled and finally took a sip of his tea. "Huh. Tastes sort of like roasted sunflower seeds."

"I have no idea, tastes like tea for me," Yamato shrugged. He never managed to understand what exactly made people so excited about tea and why there was  need to have so many of different kinds of it. But if they were enjoying it...

"You probably should rest," he said, standing up. "And I probably should get out before Sakura chases me out for disrupting your rest."

"You're going to keep following the guy?"

"Force of habit," Yamato shrugged.   

He wasn’t lying, even if his reasoning changed; once he felt like he had to keep an eye on Orochimaru out of fear the man would do something horrible while unsupervised. Now it was just one of the few things that were still familiar.

 

xxx

  
  


Eighteen hours later the ground shook violently and the seals blazed in alarm.

Yamato jumped up to his feet, blinking away the confusion. He leaned against one of the walls to keep his balance and felt the vibrations going through them, one after another, almost like heartbeat.   
He cursed, because this was definitely not an earthquake.

In few quick steps he grabbed the scroll filled with the few personal items he managed to save from Konoha but didn’t dare to open even once during the months spend in the hideout and rushed out of the room.  
People were already outside, bewilded and looking around with eyes filled with fear, tracing the shapes of the protective seals on the walls.

The walls around them shook again.  
There were already cracks in the ceiling and lines crawling all the way down the walls, with sand and dust seeping down to the ground, obscuring vision.

Wouldn't be long, though, Yamato thought grimly.

No matter how well hidden they were, how many seals were obscuring the complex and reinforcing the structure, it still could take only so much damage before falling down on their heads.

"Admit it, you were followed!" someone shouted loud enough to be heard over the rest of the noise filling the corridors. "If not for you, we would be safe!"

"How dare you!"

"Everything was fine but then you showed up! Leading them straight o our doorstep!"

It was the samurai woman who showed up with Morino, surrounded by a ring of people.  They were getting more and more aggressive with their accusation and she  looked like she was about to reach for her sword.

"Hey! We don't need bloodshed!" Yamato shouted. "We knew this could happen!"

His voice drowned in all the noise.  
Yamato grit his teeth and put his hands together in a seal, ready to separate the crowd.

The killing intent cut through the panicked people like a knife, overwhelming and powerful. 

Yamato swallowed.   
It felt like something wrapped itself around his neck and squeezed.  
But at least it was the familiar kid of noose.

"There's no need to panic," Orochimaru said loudly, a warning noticeable in the tone of his voice. "And I would appreciate you to follow the plan that was set up months ago."

His killing intent was still buzzing in the air, keeping people still and paralyzed.

"You are going to leave in orderly fashion," Orochimaru continued. "First the medic nin and sensors, then civilians and children."

"We don't have everything sealed up yet," Suigetsu said. "We could-"

"Oh please," Orochimaru rolled his eyes. "are you going to risk your life because you forgot to pack your slippers?"

"No, but-"

"The top levels are already overrun," Orochimaru cut it. "We'll have to make do with what's already here because I'm not letting anyone get anywhere near the seals."

"I could..."

"No, you couldn't. Now stop arguing and go do your part or we all die. chop chop!"  Orochimaru clapped his hands

Yamato half-expected the man to go through the portal the moment Sasuke opened it, but Orochimaru stood by the doors, arms closed on his chest, eyes glaring at the overwhelmed group of people. 

The training room was the only place in the base big enough for all the complicated sealing work to fit in.  
The floors in the rooms above were also covered in protective seals, turning the place into a fortress inside of a fortress.  
Sasuke was already standing ready by the archway that was going to serve as the doorway, a packet of chakra pills in hand.

"Is everyone here?" Yamato shouted, looking around.

He was trying to make a headcount on his own, but having a confirmation... He needed to have a confirmation, because the thought of locking someone out was freezing his blood over.

"What about mom?"

"She and Karin knew this was a possibility," Sakura said softly, voice too calm for it to be real. "They have all the sealing work memorized and can write it down wherever they are."

"But-!"

"We really don't have a choice," she repeated.

"Your mom is the smartest person I know," Sai put his hand on the shoulder of the boy. "And she's definitely going to scream a lot at both of us if we stay here for too long."

"Right," Inojin sniffed. "But if...if she's not-!"

The ground, the whole building shook with a thunderous growl.

"Are the upper levels clear or not?!" Yamato barked, losing patience. "Who's a sensor?!"

"Clear!" came the answer somewhere from the crowd.

"Thank you!"

He clapped his hands together, wooden branches and roots shooting towards the entrance and tying themselves in complicated knots, filling the corridors. 

He could hear the unnatural hum coming from behind when Sasuke activated the portal with his sharingan.  
The seals came to life, blue shine travelling through the lines, filling the room with light.

"Sensors! Form a line and go!" Orochimaru was somewhere nearby. "I want all the Genins on the seals!"

"I can help!" Sakura offered.

"No you can't, you're the best healer and you punch hard," Orochimaru cut her out. "Grab someone wounded and get out of here!"

"But-"

"He's right!" Yamato shouted. "We need you at your best out there!"

She grit her teeth and then bit her lip hard enough to drew blood but finally, nodded.

"Healers and wounded! Form a line!"

“How long do we have?” he asked quietly when he was sure they wouldn’t be accidentally overheard.

“Not long,” Orochimaru whispered back. “I… I don’t think it’s just Zetsu knocking on our doors.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly.”

Suddenly, everything was violently shaking. A spiderweb of cracks travelled up the wall, reaching towards the sealing pattern.

Yamato gasped in terror and launched himself forward.  
If these break…  
If the seals were going to break there would be nothing but Sasuke charging the portal. He wouldn’t be able to keep it going for more than few more seconds and there were still so many people here-

"Oh dear," Orochimaru is already there, both hands on the seal, chakra seeping through to reinforce it, eyes wide. 

"I can-" Yamato started.

"Oh please," Orochimaru said. "If I let go of this for even a second, we all die."

He snorted humorlessly.

"That's actually pretty damn funny, all things considered. Don't you agree?"

"You won't be able to keep it up long on your own."

"Then hurry up and get out of here," Orochimaru hissed.

Yamato nodded.

There was no time to hesitate.  
Orochimaru was saving them all even if he stepped in the role because of such a dumb thing as reacting on the autopilot. 

And all Yamato could do at this point was to step through the portal.  
So he did just that.

Yamato knew what to expect, they all did but words were nothing compared to the reality.

It felt cold, when he stepped through the portal. Cold and disorienting, like he was cut away from anything that was real and left floating in absolute nothing.  
But a blink of an eye later there was a hard ground under his feet and he was surrounded by noise - dozens and dozens of people talking, screaming, panicking, overwhelmed by the surrounding darkness and the air that smelled wrong. 

The portal was the only source of light, filling the chamber - a cave? It smelled like wet stone and ground and like water from deep wells - filling the place with flickering shadows.  
He wobbled away, because  he didn't want to crowd the portal and block the path for the few that were still on the other side, joining in the rows of distressed people, none of them able to look away from what was their world just a few minutes ago..

There was a yelp, voice too familiar to not recognize, somehow cutting through all the noise.  He turned around - he needed to see the portal, he needed to be able to tell how many people were still in danger.

Luckily, just a few and Sasuke was already taking first tentative steps back and Orochimaru was still holding the seals intact.

A small mewl came from the side and Yamato caught a movement with a corner of his eye.  
It was Mitsuki, reaching towards the portal, held in place by his brother, both boys staring at the lone person on the other side.

And Orochimaru looked back too, Yamato caught the sharp, yellow color of his eyes, contrasting vividly with the cool blue light of the cave.  
Yamato licked his lips, not daring to look away.

Sasuke moved again, stepped forward, the ground in front of him stained red and the portal distorted, the very center of it swirling like a whirlpool.

A thunderous crack announced the seals breaking, the window to the another world filled the cavern with blazing, blinding light of an explosion and through the fire, Yamato could see something moving, launching itself forward.  
He instantly set his hands in the right seal, ready to fight back.

Before the thing managed to reach him, the portal blinked away in the same moment when Sasuke dropped onto his knees with a pained groan.  
And he wasn’t alone.

Orochimaru looked at Sasuke with his eyes open wide with surprise, hair and robes wildly waving on the last gust of wind from the dying world..

“Why?”

Then darkness swallowed everything.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

It took awhile of fumbling in the darkness, bumping into other people and civilians walking into each other and the shinobi before anyone pulled out the flashlight. It was just a tiny little penlight, not even close enough to illuminate the overwhelming darkness.

Still, it was a source of light, a tiny little something that was actually visible, so people crowded towards it, pushing and stomping onto each other, cursing and screaming and the noise bounced off the cave walls magnifying the noise.

Yamato chewed on his lip.  
The last thing he saw was Sasuke and Orochimaru dropping down on the floor. With all these people stomping around, pushing each other and wandering in search of Sage knows what...  
He needed to find them before something happened. He had a vague idea where they should be.

"Alight everyone, shut the hell up!" Sakura shouted before Yamato started moving forward.  
She was the one holding the penlight and didn't sound amused with the reaction of the crowd.

"Nobody moves an inch!" she barked. "I'm going to find a better source of light and can't do that with all of you stepping on my toes!"

Other world or no, people still were aware who Sakura was and what she was capable of.  
The voices died out and the crowd did their best to stay somewhat still, while the slowly walked around, using the flashlight to read what was written on the haphazardly placed boxes.

"Why not using a fire jutsu?" someone proposed after a moment passed.

"Do you really want to risk setting someone on fire?" Sakura growled back. "Or even worse, our food supplies? No? Then shut up and let me work!"

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Sakura found the right box.

She tore into it enthusiastically, but then she had to slow down again - this time she had to read the description on every scroll inside, searching for the one that had the right description.

"Alright! I need space!" Sakura shouted. "You see a light by your feet, you make a step back! You feel someone pushing you back you go back!"

It took awhile before she was satisfied with the amount of free space and dared to unseal the scroll.  
Yamato held his breath as he heard the familiar sound followed by a crack.

Another light appeared, illuminating Sakura and a pile of items with a weak, red light.

She turned off the penlight and put it back in her pocket and picked up another flare.

"Alright people!" She said loudly, breaking the flare. "It's not ideal, but it is what it is, we need to scout the place ourselves! First, I need a wall! I think the nearest one was east from where the portal was, so let's start from there!"

Sakura handed one of the flares to the nearest person.

"Don't move if you don't need to, just hand it over to the person behind you," she ordered and picked up another flare. "Rinse and repeat!"

It didn't take too much time to find the wall.

"Alright, good!" Sakura shouted. "Now put the flare down, hand him another one, put it down few meters away from the first one!"

While the people were shifting around, following Sakura's orders to first move around the flares and then the real lamps towards where they left the flares, Yamato decided to look around instead.  
Luckily, the boys were easy to spot even in such dim light as the far away flares, their pale skin and light colored making them easily recognizable.

They were huddled close together and Yamato could see the edge of the white fabric.

Then he was right next to the boys, meeting the wide open, yellow eyes.

"He's-! I can't-!" Rogu choked out, staring at him while pulling closer the motionless body.

"Hey, hey!" Yamato whispered hastily, kneeling right next to Rogu. "It's alright, all is fine now!"

He didn't know if it was fine, but panic never solved anything and the boys already looked absolutely terrified.  
It was odd to see Orochimaru like that. A graceless rag doll dangling loosely in the arms of a terrified boy, powerless and helpless, black hair usually so silky now tangled and wrapped around him like a fishing net.  
Yamato brushed aside the hair and put his fingers on the side of the neck, finding the pulse with the well practiced ease.

"See? Everything is fine," he said, while his hand moved along the jaw to feel for the breath. "He's just unconscious. That's normal for chakra exhaustion."

He would be surprised if Orochimaru didn't drop on the floor after keeping the seals up for so long, even without channeling the siphoned chakra.

"It's going to be fine," he continued softly. "A few days of bedrest and your parent would be up an annoying as always."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Now come on. Sakura said we should move the wounded and unconscious, so they don't get accidentally stepped on."

The boy nodded reluctantly but stood up. Orochimaru's head lolled against his shoulder, loose hair swayed in the air.  
Mitsuki followed right after him, eyes wide and barely blinking.

Yamato sighed and turned to Sasuke.  
He couldn't leave him alone lying on the floor, not when everyone else was occupied with either panicking or trying to contain the chaos. The last Uchiha looked sort of grey on the face, but was still breathing.  
Which probably was some sort of a miracle, considering just what the man managed to pull off, siphoning the chakra from a whole bunch of ninja or no.

He carefully picked the man up and followed the other people.

"Sorry for leaving your husband lying on the floor for so long," he said.

Sakura gave him the most unimpressed look he ever saw and returned to shouting orders.

Yamato carefully put the man down by the wall and looked around.  
The boys were still glued to Orochimaru, making something that looked like a snake pile and he decided to leave them alone for now.

There were many people still moving around randomly dropped boxes filled with sealing scrolls, tripping over items and stones on the floor of the cave.  
He found Morino among the crowd, heavily leaning on somebody else's shoulder and then started to count the wounded and the unconscious and cursed softly under his breath.  
So many...

People gave it all, just to have a way of escaping a certain death and now were paying the price.  
Making up his mind, Yamato put his hands together.

"What the!" Sakura gasped as a bed sprouted from the ground. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I think we had a scroll with some sleeping bas somewhere close by," Yamato replied, growing another bed. "I think at least the people who are in the worst shape should rest comfortably."

There definitely was not enough sleeping beds for everyone and Yamato definitely didn't have enough chakra to create a separate resting place for everyone.

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked.

"You need a place for the wounded anyway," he shrugged slightly. "Let's make it.”  


xxx

 

Yamato rubbed at his temples with a heavy sight, counting down all the things that needed to be done, trying to ignore the pulsating migraine.

There were too many, way too many. The cave offered some sort of a shelter, deep and dark and solid, but besides that… they had nothing. Just the clothes on their backs and whatever they were carrying around on person and that was it.

And he was as powerless as when the world was endangered for the first time: only now it was truly lost for them and they were stranded in this alien place, this foreign planet and all he could do was a set of doors to shelter the inside of the cave from elements and beds for the children and wounded and he needed to do so much more before the guilt would lessen…

Orochimaru stirred on one of those beds.

Yamato groaned.  
This was the last thing he needed.

He could understand why Sasuke decided to save the man.  
He taught him once and taught him well and seeing two boys wrapping the unconscious man in a tight hug… that was another reason.

Yamato closed his eyes.  
Too many died and there was no reason for hoping for one less among their miserable numbers.

Orochimaru pushed himself up with a painful groan and looked around before his yellow eyes zeroed on Yamato.

“Where-” he started. His voice sounded rough, his hair was a tangled mess and the artificial light that wasn't even close to enough wasn't doing him any favors; the dark shadows under his eyes looked like someone punched him and hard.

“Scouting the neighborhood,” he answered before the question was fully formulated. “I'm keeping an eye on things here, since my chakra reserves are still good enough.”

“Are you supposed to do that then?” Orochimaru smirked and made a wide gesture. His hand was visibly shaking. “Wasting chakra like that?”

“A thank you would be appreciated.”

“Would it?” Orochimaru smirked. “You should rest."

“I still need to-”

“If you get chakra exhausted you will regenerate your stores was slower than if you actually act reasonable about it.”

“There are things that need to be done sooner than later,” Yamato hissed. “We can't plan out even our next meal if we don't know what is on our disposal-”

“I can count,” Orochimaru declared with a roll of his eyes.

“What?"

“I can count,” he repeated.

“Considering how you looks like I wouldn't be so sure.”

He ended up lying down on the bed, carefully pushing away what Orochimaru was using for a pillow and resting head in the crook of his arm instead. There was only so much sharing he could stand.

 

xxx

 

By this point Orochimaru should be used to the dark, damp caves.  
However this was not his dark and damp cave.

Instead, it was an unfamiliar hole in the ground, walls uneven and cold and it somehow managed to smell all wrong and unfamiliar, mercilessly reminding him that they were somewhere else.  
It shouldn't be important, considering they've escaped a certain death but the fact that it was a completely foreign ground on a foreign was enough to make Orochimaru restless.

So he crawled out of the bed and argued long enough with Tenzo to make the man throw hands up in the air and agree with whatever.    
Not that Tenzo didn't need the rest - he was probably the most useful from among all of the survivors and one of the few that weren't dizzy and sick from chakra exhaustion.

Slowly, Orochimaru made his way to the first of haphazardly placed piles of resources, determination alone preventing his footsteps from being wobbly.  
Tenzo's eyes were locked on him and the weight of the gaze was one of the few familiar things; sadly not enough to stop Orochimaru from getting  more and more anxious.

Luckily, there was a lot of work to be done.

Orochimaru doubted he would be able to do anything physically straining - not when the short walk made him feel like he sprinted through the entire Land of Fire and when his vision was randomly going off color - but he could check what they had left behind.  
Because they definitely did leave something - many of the things they were using daily, like utensils and portable kitchens, futons and pillows and spare clothes were stored on the upper levels of the base, where the people lived and used those things.

Same was for the medical equipment, his lab equipment, the bloody tea...

Orochimaru took a deep breath and then another, steadying himself.

Panicking was not going to solve anything; it was what it was and the sooner things will be organized, the sooner they would be able to figure out what to do about the resources they were missing.  
First, he needed to find  at least one scroll with the military rations and a few with water containers - and oh Sage, Orochimaru hoped that someone managed to grab the food from the kitchen storage - so there would be enough to feed everyone.  
Then he should make sure that there was enough fuel available for the generators, so the lights would stay on...

It was a slow work, even slower with him needing to stop every few minutes or blink away the blurriness.

Slow and boring to watch, since at some point Tenzo actually felt asleep.

Orochimaru stopped for a moment, looking at the man and considered his options.  
He was going to need his abilities tomorrow; it was doubtful that people would agree to sleep in literal piles, squeezed together on the dozen of beds Tenzo created. And the beds were not the only things they've desperately needed...  
Making up his mind, Orochimaru ran through a set of seals.

The genjutsu was weak, childish almost, but would be enough to keep the man asleep for the next few hours. Hopefully.  
Orochimaru certainly had no chakra for anything more efficient.  
He had no chakra for even this little trick, the strain that shouldn't be even noticeable turning his field of vision grey and blurry and  drenching him in cold sweat.

Orochimaru leaned against the crate and concentrated on breathing, waiting for the dizzy spell to pass.

"This is starting to get old," he muttered.

How long ago it was since he managed to get wiped out to this point?  
Even during the ninja wars Orochimaru paid careful attention to managing his chakra, preferring to not spend days too sick to move.  
And here he was, exhausted and stupid.

For a short moment Orochimaru considered sliding down against the crate and resting for a bit, but decided against it.  
There was still work to be done.

 

xxx

 

Two, maybe three hours have passed and it looked like Orochimaru made even a bigger mess than it was before.

If he wanted to have things in order he first had to put everything into separate piles and work from there.  
It was easy with the fuel and generators and plain ridiculous with everything else; people were grabbing haphazardly whatever they could put their hands on and Orochimaru would bet both of his arms that people were having sealing scrolls on themselves.

Orochimaru was considering taking the scrolls off sleeping people - it wasn't like he was going to rob them, when he heard a noise coming from the outside of the cave.  
With a brow furrowed, Orochimaru stopped dead and listened, trying to identify it.

The sound somewhat reminded him of the humm of the generators or maybe a computer, regular but definitely unnatural and machine-like and it was getting louder. Or rather, whatever was making the noise was getting closer.

Orochimaru glanced at - still dead asleep - Tenzo and considered his options.  
It definitely wasn't enough time for the man to completely regenerate and waking him up only because Orochimaru heard a weird noise seemed to be a silly thing to do.

Still, he needed to know what it was.

A cave filled with a handful of exhausted shinobi and equally tired civilians was all what was left. And they needed to learn. About this new place and it's dangers and the sooner, the better.  
Making up his mind, Orochimaru crept out of the cave.

The outside looked almost like the Land of earth did.  
Almost being the key word.

The color of the rocks and stones surrounding the cave was just off enough to look odd, the thin needles of grass and shrubs were both familiar and not.

The sky was the worst.  
Blue, like it was supposed to be, but also painted with a yellowish streak of a ring surrounding a globe that didn't belong next to the sun, that looked so wrong and unfamiliar that it made Orochimaru stop dead for a moment.

It was...  
It truly was another world, entirely foreign and new and by all means, he should feel excited. He did not.

Forcing himself to look away from the sky, Orochimaru moved further outside, listening on the unfamiliar sound.  
It was getting closer, close enough that it was smart to stay close to the ground, especially without knowing what it was.

Orochimaru furrowed his brow, crouching behind the boulder.  
The source of the unrecognizable sound was a... transportation device of sorts, cutting through the skies instead of water.

“A ship” because Orochimaru had no other words for something like that, even if it didn't look anything like a boat.

It looked like someone was trying to build a huge caltrop and then blunted the edges to make it appear more like a car of a train...  
And Orocimaru probably should stop thinking about how to put a name to the unfamiliar shape.

What was really important was the fact that it was a proof of the world not being as empty as Sasuke believed it to be.  
A flying machine didn't need roads and could easily move over obstacles a normal person wouldn't have a chance to pass through.  
Which could mean the flying thing came from wherever.

Not exactly something that was making Orochimaru particularly happy.

Same with the fact that the ship was getting nearer, lower.  
Then it touched the ground.

Orochimaru winced.  
He was curious, but this was the worst moment possible to satisfy his mind. He doubted anyone decided to seal the dissection table anyway.  
What was left, was observation.

If they were not alone here, then it was important to learn as much and to do so as fast as possible.  
Orochimaru crept closer.

The machine didn't look any less strange from up close.  
However now he was able to take a peek on the inside - up in the what Orochimaru assumed to be the front of the ship was a window, angled and reflecting light not exactly like a glass one should.

There were two people on the inside, one of them pushing buttons on the console in front of them, both wearing a full body armor.

A side of the ship hissed and shifted open, releasing a ramp.

More people spilled out of it, each one of them wearing an identical, white armor, each one of them missing anything that would make it possible to tell them apart from each other.

Soldiers, Orochimaru decided, observing the men in white armor. And there was something off about them.  
Not the unfamiliar clothing and helmets, not the odd weapons.

They were all exactly the same height and they walked in a disturbingly similar fashion; even the well trained samurai warriors weren't able to move like one.  
The soldiers split into pairs and moved out, marching away from the ship and looking around, weapons in hand.

One of them reached towards his helmet, put fingers on the side of it and started talking, words completely alien.  
He couldn't tell what they were talking about at all.

What he could tell, was that they were looking for something.  
Orochimaru chewed on his lip.

Did they somehow managed to learn about the shinobi seeking shelter here? If yes, then how? Were there any sensors among them? One of the scouts was unlucky enough to bump into them?  
But that didn't make sense, they wouldn't be able to question anyone.

Even if they were chasing someone else, there was a real risk of them stumbling into the cave filled with civilians and completely exhausted people and sleeping Tenzo - oh, how good deeds bite you in the ass, never again! - and that would be a very, very bad thing.

There was just something about the soldiers that was rubbing Orochimaru the wrong way.

Orochimaru exhaled slowly and made his decision.  
He had little to no chakra, definitely not enough to risk a fight with a completely unfamiliar enemy.  
What he had was enough for a few jutsu, more like parlor trick than anything really useful, but if he was unfamiliar with whatever they were carrying then the aliens we're exactly in the dark when it came to shinobi arts.

A few handsigns later, a wall rose up in front of the cave, uneven and slightly angled to look more like a natural structure.  
It definitely wasn't and a solid kick would probably be enough to bring it down - and Orochimaru deeply hoped that any of the kids didn't get the stupid idea to do so - but it would be enough of a foundation for a genjutsu.another simple technique he wouldn't usually waste his time on, more a suggestion than a true illusion.

Enemy trapped under the rock fall. Easy to understand even without the words and a test at the same time.

Just what they were going to do facing a situation like that?

Just after he completed the genjutsu, Orochimaru felt that he was reaching his limit. The world shifted before his eyes and he had no choice but to heavily lean against the stone.

Unfamiliar language echoed among the stones and Orochimaru listened on, trying to guess if he managed to get to them. The words were odd and unfamiliar and they were something new and unfamiliar and he just had no idea.

Worst case scenario, Orochimaru would rush back to the cave and break the jutsu he put on Tenzo and wake up whoever else was capable to fight. Which probably meant children.

The men continued to patrol, stopping once in a while to communicate something.

"Are you... are you looking for survivors?" orochimaru gasped quietly.

Looking for survivors while armed to the teeth meant only one thing and Orochimaru didn't like it at all.  
What was left of his world was in that bloody cave. His children were in that cave.  
He preferred those men to be as far away from the cave as it was possible and the easiest way to do so was to occupy them with something else.

Orochimaru slipped out of his cover and made sure the attention was on him before diving back between the boulders and rocks, leading the men away, back towards their ship.

Luckily it wasn't far.

Unluckily, they were spread wide enough it would be difficult to go back unnoticed and Orochimaru doubted he even had the energy to do so; he felt both hot and cold at the same time and heart was hammering in his chest, one warning sign of chakra exhaustion following another.  
It looked like he was going to observe the soldiers up close, Orochimaru decided grimly.

Once again, Orochimaru left the shadows and caught the attention of the soldiers, fingers crafting an illusion in sets of hastily made seals.

The soldiers swallowed the genjutsu surprisingly easily.  
One of them barked something and then they proceed to work like a well oiled mechanism.

He was pulled up in one sharp motion and if not for the strong grip on the arm, he would drop right back onto the ground. His vision was blurry, his face felt wet, he could smell and taste iron.

What was the last time when Orochimaru let anyone pick him up? Let alone drag him like a rag-doll?  
Because that was happening right now, he was being literally dragged towards the strange ship.

Since Orochimaru had no energy to try and get free, he concentrated on other things.  
The armor the men were wearing was odd in touch, not made of metal, leather or paper. It was surprisingly light, not as cool as metal and Orochimaru was under the impression that a solid hit would be enough to crack it like an egg.  
  
Not something made for a physical fight, Orochimaru decided and eyed the weapons. The closest thing he could think of was a crossbow. Which still was way off, but he didn't feel like it was the right time to see the weapon in action.

The inside of the ship smelled like metal and electricity and the sharp artificial lights were mercilessly baring every nook and cranny.  
Not that there was much to look at; it was all sparse and bare. Just metal and plastic and nothing else to make it feel welcoming.  
There are doors on the inside too and he's dragged through one of them - they've opened when with a panel by the doors. The buttons flashed when pushed, so memorizing the combination was a childsplay.  
Not that there was another one of these panels on the inside.

There was literally nothing on the inside of the room, safe for another set of doors - big and wide and taking what seemed to be the entire wall - and  metal clasps on the floor and walls that looked like there should be something attached.  
That and a set of three weirdly colored toddlers crying their lungs out.

"Wha-?" Orochimaru blinked rapidly.

Why there were toddlers locked in an empty room? Why was he showed into a room with toddlers?  
Were the toddlers prisoners?  
Why in the world-

While he was occupied trying to figure out just what the hell were these people thinking, one of them raised hand and looked down at his wrist.

A part of his armor flashed there and an image appeared above it, a see-through, small figure of a person in dark clothes and arms crossed behind their back, looking just as alien as everything else.

It spoke and the soldier spoke back while Orochimaru desperately drank up all the words, trying to find some sort of sense in them, but even the structure was alien and unfamiliar.

What he could read was the tone of the voice and the body language.

The image disappeared and the soldiers raised their weapons in one fluid motion.  
Orochimaru hurried through the seals, managing to release a genjutsu just before they aimed at him. The suggestion once again slipped into the minds of the soldiers with a surprising ease and took root in there, the need to transport the prisoners to a person of authority.

There was no time for anything more complicated, there were no words he could use to communicate with them.  
There was not even enough strength to not drop onto the floor as the men pushed him further inside.

Orochimaru laid for a moment on the ground, grateful for the cool, hard metal that was some sort of an anchor when the world seemed to be just a blur whirling around him, whole body aching for the wisps of chakra that wasn't there.

“This definitely didn't go as planned,” Orochimaru said weakly, slowly pushing himself up the wall.  
It could be just his imagination, but he could swear that he was feeling vibrations going through it.  
Was it flying?  
The ship was probably flying.

Oh, Sage blast it.

The toddlers continued to wail.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is going to be the most self indulgent thing I'll even write.
> 
> I strongly headcanon that Yamato accidentally tripped into co-parenting Orochimaru's kids.  
> Mostly because I don't believe it was possibly for Oro to keep growing children in test-tubes a secret, not with Yamato so dead-set on keeping his eye on him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

The wailing didn't sound like it was going to stop anytime soon.

Orochimaru cracked his eyes open and winced.

The light was too bright, the sounds were bouncing off the walls and coming back with a vengeance and the soldiers didn't seem to be coming back any time soon.  
There was nothing to do but to investigate. 

The most interesting one among the toddlers - it looked more like a baby - seemed to be also the youngest, with skin that was Uzumaki red and had a peculiar looking bald head.   
Orochimaru picked the kid up; he wanted a closer look and it was the only child that cried without making a sound which was an oddity of its own.  
Was the kid sick? Or it was something characteristic to its species?

Questions, questions...

Up close, the top of the red head was covered in small bumps. They were set up like a ring wrapped around the temples, spaced regularly.  
The skin under his fingers seemed to be stretched in a way that was most probably painful.  
It was sort of like the toddler was teething on the top of its head.

Not that it needed any more teeth; There were already tiny little fangs peeking from the gums and it looked like the rest of the teeth were about to follow.

"Double teething? You poor thing!" Orochimaru cooed, continuing his examination.

The child had five fingers and toes, it's limbs had a set of motions he would expect of a normal, boring human and it seemed to be calmed down by just being held.  
Well, the floor was cold, of course it felt better being away from it. 

Orochimaru readjusted his obi and hanfu and showed the red toddler into the improvised pouch.  
It seemed to be alright with it and Orochimaru had free hands to examine the two others. 

The green one - it was a pleasant olive green shade -  had no unusual bits sticking out from anywhere.  
It actually came when Orochimaru called it with a gesture, face wet from tears and snot, still sniffing. The steps were wobbly and unsure, but it was walking and standing more or less straight.  
 The child also looked him straight in the eyes and waited. 

"Brave little thing, aren't you?"

The child furrowed its brow and said... something.

"Yes, I assume you've gathered we have a small communication issue going on," Orochimaru sighed. 

The frown deepened and it looked hilarious on a chubby little face with big, dark eyes.   
Orochimaru would laugh if he had energy for it.  
He definitely did not.

The last child came on its own, and plopped near the green one, making some sounds that were at least somewhat similar to the language everyone else was using. 

This one was somewhere in between the other two when it came to growth. Definitely less steady on its feet but more careful than the two other children, apprehending him only after he saw the other two children do so. This toddler also had a fluff of blue hair on top of its head and skin in the most fascinating shade of pink. It was deep and strong and almost magenta-like.

Still, same amount of fingers and limbs. 

Sort of disappointing.

"Now, what the military people would want from a bunch of toddlers?" Orochimaru muttered, after he was done examining the children.

He knew one, maybe two possible answers to that question - both of a gruesome nature - but that meant there was something extraordinary about those three brats.

Otherwise it just wouldn't make sense to send trained soldiers so far away just to grab some random babies.  


xxx

 

Apparently one of the things that were universal no matter where were the ration bars - it was all that was tossed into the cell along with bottles of water. And it arrived only after Orochimaru decided to once again nudge the soldiers with yet another genjutsu; this time it was the need to deliver the prisoners alive. 

It was a shitty exchange, but Orochimaru felt like there was no choice. 

He needed  it, the alien babies definitely sounded like they've needed it...

Orochimaru picked up one of the bars and examined it.  
The package was different, but familiar enough to not give him any difficulty in figuring out how to open it.  
Orochimaru glanced at the toddlers, then looked back at the bar.

It wasn’t exactly hard -there was a little give when he squeezed it - but still. They all were in the painful process of getting their first teeth so chewing was probably possible, but Orochimaru had certain doubts about the kid with probably-horns. 

Was it even edible for whatever they were?

Orochimaru sniffed the bar and took a careful nibble.  
It tasted mostly like sugar, left an oily film on his teeth and had a slightly unpleasant aftertaste. Protein powder, he recognized.

It should dissolve in water or at least make a solution and the ingredients tasted like the very basic ones, no flavoring, no anything additional that could improve the taste.  
And here he was sure the ration bars during the second war were gross. Now he would gladly swap for the rock hard crackers.

With a sigh, Orochimaru started working on the solution, trying to ignore the taste still lingering in his mouth. He hoped the sugar would be enough to pacify the kids. Getting into a fight with toddler who had and it's disposal something sweet and sticky was definitely not his plan for the evening. Morning. Whatever it was right now.

 

Xxx

  
Time passed.

 Orochimaru wasn't sure how much, because it was impossible to tell in the completely bare room.   
He dozed off a few times, but it probably wasn't for long - being locked in a room with three teething toddlers would make resting impossible even if the kids weren't scared out of their skins. 

At least they've decided Orochimaru was a source of warmth instead of danger, so the screaming was less intense than in the beginning.

The soldiers...  
Orochimaru wasn't sure what to think of them. They appeared to be well trained and a force to reckon with, but at the same time...

If not for Orochimaru wasting precious chakra to regularly remind them about bringing water and food for the prisoners, they just wouldn't be doing it.   
Which made them transporting the toddlers more and more odd thing with every passing moment.

Because Orochimaru kept using what little chakra he managed to cast genjutsu on the soldiers - to remind them about both the food and not killing their prisoners - he was weak and sick with chakra exhaustion.  
The longer he was doing so, the more he was risking - untreated chakra exhaustion could easily transform in a many different ailments and he didn't have a carefully crafted body waiting for him in a tank.

Which meant Orochimaru had to get out and quickly. 

Naturally, he was going to take all the brats, since his curiosity about what was so special about the group still wasn't satisfied. 

Tsuno - the horned one - was as quiet as in the beginning, not fussing over anything. It was making Orochimaru itch to use a diagnostic jutsu, which he couldn't do if he didn't want to knock himself out cold.  
Later, he decided. 

Right now he had to figure out the logistics of the escape. 

The green child - Midori for the lack of any other name to call her by - was the only one capable of steady walk, but she was still way too slow.  
Which meant Orochimaru had to figure out how to carry all three of them having only two hands and not even close chakra to producing a shadow clone. 

The answer was simple, but Orochimaru tried to avoid it for a stupidly long time.  
He liked that hanfu, it was a gift. And probably one of the very few things he had left of the old world... Which would mean nothing if Orochimaru ended up dead.  
Still, he winced at the tearing noise the fabric made when he finally started to work.

Orochimaru was doing a decent progress on the improvised harness, when the never ending humm of the engines changed.  
It grew stronger, making the walls vibrate and the whole room shake.

The children screamed in fear, unable to stay upwards, the clasps rocket against the floor.

It all died after a thunderous thud he felt deep in his bones.

With a curse on his lips, Orochimaru hurried the children as far away from the doors as it was possible and gestured for them to keep silent.   
It wasn't a difficult task for Tsuno, since the child had yet to make any sort of a sound, but Hiiro looked like he was about to start crying.   
Luckily, Midori was a very smart kid and immediately put her chubby little hand on his face, shutting the toddler up before he made any ruckus.

Orochimaru put his ear to the doors, trying to listen in on what was going on.   
Because something disrupted the routine. 

Up until now, the soldiers acted more like drones than people, using only as many words as they needed to fulfill their tasks and now he could hear raised voices.   
Just what they were arguing about?

The language wasn't making any sort of sense and he couldn't even see the soldiers to gather clues from their body language.  
The voices sounded... off.

Up until this time, the soldiers communicated with as much emotion in their voices as the ROOT agents; it was a cold and mechanical manner of speech.

Orochimaru suspected that it was all facts, never tainted with personal opinions - if the soldiers were even capable of that.  
Now they sounded angry, one of the soldiers way louder than other of his people, almost like was scolding them...

Then Orochimaru heard a new voice joining in. And it sounded familiar.  
Oh, the language was still completely alien to him, but the bitterness of it, the breath stealing anger and desperation turned into something more akin to hopelessness...!

It was something Orochimaru knew like the back of his hand.

He welcomed the familiarity of it because it was finally a card he could use. The voice sounded young too, not exactly a child anymore but far away from being a grown up adult.  
Definitely something Orochimaru would be able to play to his needs with minimal amount of effort.  
But before that...

The sounds of the argument on the other side of the doors got louder and Orochimaru decided it was time to interfere before things went the wrong way. The soldiers were of the rather trigger happy sort and Orochimaru would hate to waste an opportunity after it was almost literally dropped into his lap.  
Still, he couldn't help himself but wince when he felt the genjutsu sucking chakra out of his body. 

A simple compulsion shouldn't be even something noticeable, but Orochimaru got stuck in the vicious cycle of chakra exhaustion with no way out of it.   
However it was a problem to face later on.  
Right now, he needed to get away - wobble away - from the doors because the sounds of the argument died like they were cut off with a knife. 

It never ceased to surprise him just how easy it was for the compulsion to set in their minds.

Was it because they've never encountered a chakra user?

There wasn't exactly time to think about the why's and how's of the situation: the doors shifted open and two of the soldiers dragged in another person and tossed them on the ground. 

Orochimaru wondered if he was wasting an opportunity here; he could rush forward and kill the two soldiers while their hands were still empty and get out of the cell, but... what then?

There was more than just two soldiers on the ship and even if he somehow managed to kill them all - which would be difficult considering how exhausted he was - he would be pretty much stuck in an iron, flying box that could drop from the heavens at any moment. 

No, he needed someone that knew how to use this flying death trap.  
The soldiers just delivered him someone like that.

So Orochimaru waited in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall and observing the newest prisoner slowly picking themselves up.

As Orochimaru guessed, it was not an adult.  
More like a boy, roughly the age of a freshly minted genin, currently occupied with picking himself off the floor.   
He was lean and short, but had well developed muscles that told a tale of years of training.   
Only a few scars that didn't have time to go pale and an outfit designed with making movement as easy as possible.

The unfamiliar fabrics of his clothes were hugging the body closely, making it naught impossible to hide things, but there was an array of pockets, belt holsters and similar things making it possible to actually carry items, Orochimaru continued his observations. 

The teen managed to get up and turn around to hit the closed doors with his fist in an act of pure, hopeless frustration.

Hiiro decided to choose this moment to make an unhappy sound, which make the not-genin whirl around in shock.

Shock morphed into horror and then recognition and Orochimaru couldn't help himself but smile.   
The soldiers delivered him exactly what he needed.

And now it was time to say hello.   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midori - Green  
> Hiiro - Scarlet  
> Tsuno - Horn
> 
> Orochimaru is hilariously bad with the names for someone coming from a culture where there's so much attention put to picking just the right name and a way of writing it. 
> 
> If anyone is familiar with the Star Wars - guess the species X)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

  


Caleb was thrown on the hard metal floor, scraping his cheek and fingers on the harsh surface of the ventilation crate.  
The force of the impact pushed the air out of his lungs, shocking him back into consciousness. 

"Why did you bring him alive?" one Clone barked at another. It was hard to tell them apart without looking up - and looking up hurt, half of his face was pulsating with pain -, all the voices sounding exactly the same, more than they ever have before.  
The little quirks of speech, small differences in flexion and sentence structure, it was all gone the moment they decided to turn their guns at Master Billaba.

"He should be properly executed," the Clone that captured him argued. "He's a traitor."

"And he's dangerous he needs to be-" his speech slurred.

Caleb furrowed his brow.

He could sense... something. It was like a distortion in the air, like a mirage setting or a holo-projection slowly crawling to live around them.

"We need to take the prisoners to Coruscant," the Clone declared out loud. 

Caleb blinked. What.

"Their fate will be decided there," another one said. "I call an execution."

"We'll see," Commander Grey said, brow slightly furrowed.

It took a moment for Calebs brain to catch up with the words.

The prisoners. Plural.   
There was someone else on the ship and that someone used the Force.  
There was no other explanation for why Caleb wasn't gunned down right here, right now.

Heart hammering madly in chest, Caleb let the clones drag him to wherever they wanted to dump him.  
Obedience for now, he decided, swallowing the humiliation, anger, everything. He needed to know. 

However for what was inside the cell, Caleb was definitely not ready.  
There were children. Little toddlers, only one of them even able to stand up straight on tiny, chubby legs. What the hell were Clone Troopers doing with toddlers? What they needed them for?

Were they Force sensitive, destined to become Jedi, only the cruel shift of power in the galaxy robbed them of their fate?

They surely wouldn't bother with any normal kids, unless these belonged to someone who dared to oppose the empire and had a position high enough that the army needed a hostage to use against them to enforce obedience...

The children didn't look like they came from the riches.  
Their clothes were just like he expected to see on a child that belonged to a normal family, with normal, steady income.   
There were small stains here and there, serving as a proof that they were here for awhile.

Too terrified by seeing children in a place such as this, Caleb didn't notice the  last person in the cell.  
Only after he heard the quiet, raspy voice, Caleb raised his head and looked straight into the strange, yellow eyes.

There was a woman sitting by one of the walls, letting toddlers crawl onto her lap, while her fingers were working on some sort of a fabric. She was wearing dark clothes of an unfamiliar cut, strongly contrasting with her white skin.

Was she an Umbaran?  
They had skin similarly pale and ghastly, but their hair was usually equally pale while the woman had long, black hair, falling down onto her shoulders and even lover down.  
And her eyes - yellow and slit, completely not like that one senator lady that always kept close to the Chancellor since the moment she came out of the woodworks. 

A Dathomiri witch then? Caleb never saw any of them, only heard stories and a holo portrait of Asajj Ventress.

Once again, there were some similarities, like the violet markings on the eyelids of the woman in front of him but once again, not everything fit.   
It was a riddle to solve for when he wasn't held captive anyway.

"Thank you!" Caleb smiled, his heart skipping a beat.

The yellow eyes were unnerving, not leaving him for the slightest moment, barely blinking. It felt like she was taking him apart.

"I really needed help," he continued to babble. "You were captured too, right? Are the children with you, or-?"

A chuckle wasn't what he expected to hear as a response.  
This was not a joke! This was the most horrible situation he could even imagine and laughing about it...

Her brow furrowed, turning smile into a grim sort of an expression.  
She said something, voice low and raspy but melodic at the same time and it didn't make the slightest sense. 

Caleb blinked, trying to repeat the sentence inside his mind, only to realize he didn't recognize any of the words. 

"You... don't speak Basic?"

She replied, this time a pang of annoyance was noticeable.

Caleb leaned against the wall, exhaling in defeat.

"This is... I can't even imagine how shitty it must be for you," he continued to talk because he had nothing better to do. "You can't even tell what they all want from you."

She probably was here for awhile too, locked in a small cell with three toddlers and no idea what was going to happen to any of them. 

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out," he continued. "We'll get out of here and find another ship to escape and then figure something else!"  
We, because he couldn't leave them to fend for themselves. Not those little babies and not the strange woman that didn't know a word in Basic.

The more he looked at her, the more little details he noticed.  
Her hair was tangled and oily, her clothes - while expensive looking - were wrinkled and stained.  
Even her face betrayed signs of exhaustion: once Caleb got over the yellow eyes, he noticed the dark shadows under them, how she was using the wall to stay upwards, the slight shake to her hands. 

"Can I help you somehow?" Caleb asked softly. 

It was a dumb question. Of course he could. There were three tiny children and she was forced to take care of them or her own, unable to even ask for things she needed. 

The woman was keeping a tiny Zabrak child close, while another toddler - red skin and a fluff of blue hair. Caleb wasn't sure what the kid was, but it looked humanoid enough to work similarly enough - he should've paid more attention.   
But back then all he cared for was becoming more awesome, better with lightsaber and taking care of little kids in the creche seemed to be a punishment. 

The oldest - probably a boy - looked like Master Luminara. He had the same olive colored skin and even a similar perky nose.

The woman observed him moving around, but didn't seem to be alarmed when he made his first careful move towards one of the toddlers.  
Quite the opposite. She smiled at him and then slowly raised the piece of fabric she was working on.

It was bigger than Caleb expected and for a moment he didn't understand the meaning behind it - it looked like a piece of clothing, expensive and pretty that was torn into several pieces and then meticulously tied together to create an odd looking...  
Harness. It was a carrier for the toddlers, two of the younger ones. 

It meant that the woman, whoever she was, wasn't defeated yet: she had a plan and was slowly accomplishing it step by step.

"You're amazing!" he gasped.

She couldn't understand the words, but the meaning behind them reached her. She looked like a cat, lazy and bored and yet waiting for the prize to make one wrong step.

One of the toddlers walked towards her. Or rather, made a few steps and then decided to beat the last bit of a distance sliding on its butt instead.

The woman opened her arms - as much as possible when already holding a child - and let the child clumsily climb into her lap.

The last one- the Mirialan - looked at him suspiciously, ready to bold behind the woman at any moment.

"Hi there!" Caleb smiled awkwardly, while trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. 

Thanks to Janus and his ridiculous schemes he saw prison from the inside more than once. This was just another cell, only this time it was flying in the empty void of space, making escaping it very difficult. 

He wasn't sure if the woman had any sort of a plan and they couldn't exactly communicate, but at least she figured out a way to carry the children. 

"...hi," the Mirialan finally said, shifting shyly on their feet. 

"How are you?"

"Locked," the child replied truthfully.

Caleb winced.  
The woman noticeably perked up, observing the exchange with interest sparkling in her eyes. 

"Me too," Caleb agreed, eyes not leaving the only adult in the room. "Who's the lady?"

"Dunno," the child replied. "Talks funny!"

"Yeah," Caleb nodded. 

"Food?" the Miralian pulled out a ration bar.

"No, thank you!" Caleb shook his head. He had more than enough of these things during his short time away from the Jedi temple and it was more than enough.

"Oh," the child nodded wisely. "No good?"

"Definitely not tasty," he agreed. 

"Sorry!"

"Not your fault the army called dibs on all the yucky food!"

The Jedi weren't exactly known for their cuisine, all the meals prepared with nutrients in the mind instead of taste or presentation.  
Still, there was a world of difference between that and cheapest spacer food smashed into the shape of bars. 

He closed his eyes.  
At least the kids were being fed, while the soldiers transported them... somewhere.

Caleb had no idea why or when commander Grey and the rest of the Clones swapped from hunting him down to collecting people on their way.  
The only thing he knew was that he couldn't let the Clones have the children. The Force led him to them for a reason.

"Now, how to get out of here...?" he muttered. 

It seemed like their only option was to wait for the ship to land; he couldn't possibly take over a vessel filled with well trained Clone Troopers, especially not when there were little children mixed in. And the woman, he couldn't even share his plans with her.  
But what if the ship landed someplace where it would be even more Clone Troopers around - or even what if it was heading straight for Coruscant?

"What do you want from me?" Caleb asking, trying to feel the Force, to focus on where it was leading him.

The ship suddenly shook and the alarm sirens blazed through the corridors with a deafening force, almost throwing him into a wall. 

"Alright, that's what you want!" Caleb yelped. 

If this wasn't a sign, he didn't know what else could possibly happen to push him into action.  
He turned around and made eye contact with the woman.

She managed to guess what he meant. The makeshift harness was already wrapped around her chest and she was just finishing securing two of the children, while the Miralian waited. 

Caleb turned around towards the doors and closed his eyes.  
Just a few months ago he promised to himself that he's not going to use anything taught to him by the Jedi. Back then it was just too risky, too dangerous, too stupid to lean upon.  
Now, now he reached out, letting the Force wash over his fingers, letting it swallow him back in and it sang back to him.

The doors shifted open, the mechanism malfunctioning in the one in a million chance of electronics backfiring that wasn't a chance at all.

"Let's go!"

The woman didn't react to the words but a simple gesture was enough to make her move.

Caleb lead them through the doors, all senses concentrated on trying to figure out just what the Force wanted from him now. 

The alarm siren was still going off and the lights were flashing back and forth, like there was something wrong with the power.   
The emergency lights were still off,  so every few seconds the corridors were swallowed by complete darkness only to be filled with blinding light a moment later.

Just what happened?

Did they felt out of hyperspace because the jump calculations were off? Was the ship pushed off course because there was something big in the way?  
But Caleb would have felt the moment they've entered the Hyperspace. It would be impossible to miss, especially in the cargo hold - and about the cargo hold and a bunch of toddlers being a push of a button away from being spaced he really didn't want to think.

Whatever happened, it made sneaking through the ship easier.

The escape pods would probably be their best bet to get away, Caleb decided. 

If the electronics got as fried as it looked like, then there was a chance for the Clone Troopers to not notice the missing pod until much, much later. And the pods had to be there because if the Clone Troopers were following anything right now, it was regulations.   
It wasn't that far from the cargo bay either, the only problem being the long corridor with nowhere to hide.

Caleb wasn't the only one scared; the woman's eyes were moving back and forth, taking in the area and she pulled the Miralian closer, ready to pick her up at any given moment. 

Caleb wasn't sure what exactly it was going to accomplish; they were just targets in a shooting range and the short moments of darkness were their only shelter. Not that it would do much difference when faced with a row of blasters.   
He wished that he still had his lightsaber. He wished that he had that dumb pistol Janus gave him. Anything.

There were voices, carried through the ship, as the Clones hurried around, trying to find what went wrong with the ship.  
It was just a matter of time when one of them would decide to check on the prisoners and Caleb really hoped that by then-

A shadow shifted on the walls not far, as if Caleb called it and he stiffened in fear - stupid, stupid, he shouldn't be making such dumb mistakes, not after everything that happened -

"Kid! Are you alright?" 

"Janus!" Caleb gasped, both happy and absolutely terrified at the sight of a familiar face. "What are you doing here?!"

"Stealing!" the Kalleran grinned. "What else I would be doing on a bucket like this one?"

"Right," It was hard to not roll his eyes.

This man was such an absolute sap it was hard to believe he managed to live off robbing other people and not starve himself to death.

"How in the stars did you even get in here?"

"In my own ship, duh!"

"We're in space!" Caleb groaned. "This is an armed military transport ship-!"

"And the gun is up front," Janus shrugged. "The ship is not attached to the front window!"

"How they didn't notice the Kasmiri?"

"The other one!" Janus corrected with a grin. "Jondo really is a miracle worker!"

"He's alright!" Caleb breathed out in relief. "Wait, he just let you take the ship?"

"He's the pilot!" The Kalleran grin widened. "And he has all the cool toys. Damn Seps, they really knew how to crack those buckets open!-"

Caleb didn't know if he wanted to scream or laugh. He was being rescued by the Separatist General, the same man that was supposedly serving evil just a few months ago. And he was rescuing Caleb from what once was the good and just Republic and all of this was such a nightmare-

Overwhelmed by emotions, Caleb noticed the warning pang in the Force only after he saw the white armor rising  behind Janus.

"Look out!" Caleb shouted, feeling a cold dread overcoming him.   
He was too far, he didn't have his lightsaber, he didn't have a gun and the clone was pointing his gun right at the Kalleran! He played dead and was going to kill Janus just like they've Killed Master Billaba and Caleb couldn't do anything-!

The man started to turn around in alarm, but it was too slow, the clone had his finger on the trigger and there was but a sliver of a second before-

The woman emerged from the shadows behind the clone looking more like a vengeful wraith than a real human, dark clothing and hair blending in with the shadows almost perfectly.

A light reflected off something in her hand before she reached out.

Fingers grabbed the helmet and forced the clone's head to move to the side, baring the space between the helmet and the neckline of the armor.  
Her other hand descended instantaneously and without the slightest hesitation, the sharp object digging into the flesh with ease. 

The clone stiffened and dropped the gun before the knees bend under the man and he dropped onto the side, a thin blade escaping the narrow hole inside his neck, traced by a thin line of blood.

"Whoa!" Janus gasped. "Thanks!"

"He's cool!" Caleb feverishly gesture while beating the distance between them in a few huge steps. "He came here to save me! Us!"

She didn't know a word in Basic, probably came from a world that had no contact with the rest of the galaxy until recently and Janus just barged in here, guns blazing.  
That could give a wrong impression and Caleb didn't know what he would do if something happened-

The woman tilted her head to the side, looking the Kalleran up and down, without fear or an ounce of shame. 

"Uh," Janus cringed a little and took a short glance at the corpse on the floor. "Hi?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Press F for my ancient netbook
> 
> Thumbs up for my new-ish laptop. 
> 
> And maybe laugh at me being unable to write on a slightly wider keyboard. It's going to take me a bit to get back up to speed.

**Author's Note:**

> \- Only important, main characters are going to be tagged to not turn this fic into some sort of a monstrosity with more tags than words in a chapter  
> \- Pairings are going to be added once the parties meet each other  
> \- Rating might go up


End file.
